Bumps of the Month

Rip It Up, Issue 219, 1 November 1995, Page 33

Bumps of the Month

- Selected by DJS .

VARIOUS Macro Dub Infection Volume One (Virgin) Been out a while now, this is a totally out there collection of dubwise bass monsters. Spring Heel Jack and Omni Trio contribute wicked slices of drum ’n’ bass; The Disciples, Mad Professor and Bandulu do their usual laid back adventures in dub; but check 4Heroes’ ‘The Paranormal in 4 Form’ for the future of music.

CHRONICLES In Dub Remixes (Tone Def) This is future drum ’n’ bass that sends shivers down your spine and moves your soul every time you hear it. Tight snares, a minimal bassline and a haunting vocal make for an ambient jungle killer. Look out for anything on Tone Def.

2 PLAYER Extreme Possibilities (Ninja Tunes) The Ninjas are really bustin' some great records at the moment, and every second one seems to have a trip-hop inspired drum ’n’ bass remix. This time it’s the incomparably talented Wagon Christ on the remix, which starts in with lazy trip-hop beats before a ‘Welcome to the world of extreme possibilities’ sample leads you down a twisted spiral of future ambient jungle darkcore. Wicked.

SAM SEVERS and THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ART What’s That Sound? (Mo’ Wax) ‘Whats That Sound?’ is a distortion led hip-hop track with lines like: ‘Whats that sound, fucked

up sound? / I can hear it all around,’ or something like that. It also uses a sample of KRS I's 'Sound of da Police’. Totally slamming. ‘Words of Wisdom’ uses various ’ well known hip-hop samples to drop science and paint an ugly picture of the music industry's attitude to hip-hop.

METHOD MAN featuring MARY J BLIGE I’ll Be There For You (Def Jam) ; ' Apparently Method was ■ reluctant to team up with • the more commercial Mary J until Def Jam offered him a car to do it. Anyway, this is a rare hiphop love song of real emotion, intelligence and • sensitivity. Method lays himself open and comes away keeping it ‘real’. An instant classic. As a ' bonus, on the flip you get a Chemical Brothers remix of ‘Bring the Pain' which, at the risk of sounding awestruck, is another . instant classic, and with a dash of chemical . , .. maddness, this is an unmissable 12.

THE CHEMICAL BROTH- ' ERS Life is Sweet - . (Remixes) (Virgin) ......... The original featuring . vocals from Tim Burgess is, of course, pretty cool,' but its the Daft Punk remix that gets my nod happening. Daft Punk - ,> were responsible for the wicked acid funk that is (A ‘Da Funk’ (on Soma), and - they do actually have a similar sound to the brothers chemical; Here they > rip things up with a 303 ; riff from biker hell, and T pin it it down with a tight pulse beat and searing. ' high hats. The funk lives .. on! ■ ■